"The government is doing everything possible to emerge from this crisis stronger," Capriles is quoted as saying. "They're saying a group of fascists is trying to burn down the country in order to cover up the great problems we're currently living."

Over the past few days, Maduro, who was Hugo Chavez's right-hand man, has accused the United States and its allies of trying to destabilize the country.

Caracas Chronicles, an English-language blog that leans toward the opposition, writes that the protests started in San Cristobal, after government forces tamped down a student protest using a heavy hand.

"Venezuela has one of the world's highest levels of crime. After over a year of asking the state government for improved security measures to curb rampant crime on campus, a freshman at ULA's Táchira campus was sexually assaulted.

"This attempted rape caused a wave of local protests, with students and civil society groups taking to the streets to demand justice. The government's response was heavy handed from the start: five students were detained following a protest and sent to a jail hundreds of miles away in Coro, stoking anger even further. Students in other universities joined the protests in solidarity, demanding the original five be released, only to be repressed in their turn.

"As the protest movement gained steam, the protests have become as much about civil rights and the Right to Protest itself — rejecting the government's criminalization of all dissent — as about the original goals. Later still, they took on the tone of a general anti-government rebellion, with streets being blocked and running battles with security forces taking place night after night."